Ministers Propose UK ISP Name and Shame List

Ministers Propose UK ISP Name and Shame List

18th Nov 09:59

The government's minister of culture, Barbara Follett, and her conservative shadow, Ed Vaizey, have given their support to an idea that would see league tables published displaying how effectively UK ISPs deal with the removal of offensive content.

This name and shame style list would typically deal with violent or sexually explicit web content, thus embarrassing some ISPs into dealing with the problem. Follett also criticised existing filter systems for being too weak and easy to bypass, although no specific method was highlighted:

"We must teach children of the dangers of the internet. It is sad to make children more scared than interested, but fortunately the internet is so interesting that children tend to overcome their fear," Follett told The Guardian.

"We agree information about take-down times and levels of search need to be much clearer. We need the service providers to come forward and show that they are the sort of responsible organisations whose services we can trust to our children."

Search engines, such as Google, were also criticised for failing to include clear links to child safety information and safe search settings on their front pages. In addition some form of "age identity card" for the Internet was also proposed, although we can't see how such a thing would be even remotely effective without face-to-face interaction.

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